From 1964 to 1970, he was literary director at Editions Tchou. From 1962 to 1972, he was a member of the management committee of the journal Tel Quel, and his first four books were published in the Tel Quel series. In 1971, he joined the editorial committee of Editions du Seuil, where he was director of the contemporary literature series "Fiction & Cie" and "Les Contemporains". He co-founded Les Cahiers de la Photographie with Gilles Mora, Bernard Plossu and Claude Nori in 1980. He is a member of the jury of the Prix Médicis. In 1997, he won the Grand Prix de la Photographie, awarded by the City of Paris.

Denis Roche has published some twenty books since Récits complets in 1963.

In 1971, the first photography of Françoise, his wife, overlooking the cemetery of Pont-de-Montvert - Image that will be redone in 1984, 1995 and 2005 - inaugurates work on the gaps of time which will be a leitmotif of his work. The gallery has exhibited each step of the construction of this series Le Pont-de-Montvert until its final form in 2008.

He began to exhibit and publish his photographs in 1978, with Notre antéfixe—a reference in terms of what came to be known as "photo-autobiography". But his anthology of texts on the photographic act, entitled La Disparition des lucioles (1982), attracted particular attention from the critics. Many exhibitions were to follow: in France at the Maeght gallery and the Espace Photographique in Paris and at the gallery Le Réverbère in Lyon; in Brussels, Hanover, Frankfurt, Turin, Naples, Atlanta and New York, and also in Mexico, Austria, Peru, Egypt, Japan, Syria, etc.

A critical monograph of his photographic work featuring texts by a dozen authors was published in 1989 under the title Denis Roche (Cahiers de la Photographie n° 23).

Ellipse et laps, an album including most of his photographic work to date, was published by Editions Maeght in 1991.

In 1995, a new exhibition at the gallery Le Réverbère entitled Il n’y a pas de leçon des ténèbres.

Ten years later in March 2OO1, Gilles Mora devoted a major chronological monograph to him. It was co-published by Seuil and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie under the title Denis Roche - Les Preuves du temps, and is a record of his production since 1971.

Subsequent to this publication, a general retrospective was held in April 2OO1 at the Musée Nicéphore Niepce in Chalon-sur-Saône, and a more experimental exhibition was organised at the same time at Le Réverbère gallery in Lyon, entitled La Question que je pose. The contents of both exhibitions were presented in Paris, from September 11, 2001, at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie.

In 2008, a new solo exhibition is presented at the gallery Le Réverbère. 40 unpublished photos 1986-2007 is a set that comes four months after the publication of the book La photographie est interminable Editions du Seuil (2007).

In 2011, the book Voyages en Egypte, Photographes primitivistes du XIXè siècle, Denis Roche, Pierre de Fenoÿl, accompanies the exhibition of the same name at The Art Gallery of the General Council based in Aix-en-Provence.

A selection of these photographs taken in Egypt was exhibited in the collective exhibition Sortie de réserve(s) organized by the gallery The Lamppost in January 2012.

In May 2013, Denis Roche is exposed to the gallery Le Réverbère for the collective exhibition Désir de Collection and then at the Espace Malraux in Chambery in October. He also exhibited at the Gallery 10 in Madrid, Spain for the collective exhibition Etonnantes affinités. In parallel to these exhibitions he was invited to Entretiens organized by the Henri Cartier Bresson Foundation in Paris.

In January 2014, the artist participates in the International Photographic Festival China Beijing Lishui in China. In April, Denis Roche exhibits at the gallery from 5th to Marseille to the exhibition entitled Temps de pose.. Then in May he’s presented at the exhibition Trésors! in the Municipal Library of Lyon in the 80th IFLA conference.

In 2014 appears a new book Denis Roche, in the artpress’ collection "Les grands entretiens ".

Denis Roche is represented by the gallery Le Réverbère in Lyon since 1989.

- Collective exhibition En bordure d’une humanité ordinaire at In Extremis, in Strasbourg, from march the 13th to 29th

Exhibition Les Preuves du temps at the Bibliothèque Kateb Yacine, in Grenoble, from march the 25th to may the 9th

- Collective exhibition La Photographie Française du XXème siècle, exhibition hall of the Province of Pordenone, in Italy, from jully the 24th to october the 11th

- Collective exhibition Entre intime et autoportrait [un temps dilaté] at the Espace d’Art François Auguste Ducros, in Grignan, from september the 19th to november 15th

- Exhibition of the series Le Pont-de-Montvert at Paris Photo (gallery Le Réverbère), at the Grand Palais, from november the 12th to the 15th

- Exhibition Denis Roche, Photolalies at the Pavillon Populaire de l’Espace d’art photographique, in Montpellier, from november the 24th to february the 14th 2016. Catalog Denis Roche, Photolalies, texts of Denis Roche and Gilles Mora, Hazan Editions.